Foreign Fighters in Ukraine Await Weapons in Chaos of War

15 Mar 2022 Associated

These people are stupid

LVIV, Ukraine — They are idealists who abandoned their jobs for the battlefields of Ukraine, looking for a cause or simply to fight.

The Ukrainian president’s call for foreign volunteers to join an international brigade to help bolster his country’s defense with a new layer of resistance to Russia’s invasion is for now a ragtag army.

Recruits say they are often waiting for weapons and training, leaving them feeling exposed.

“Pure hell: fire, shouting, panic. And a lot more bombs and missiles.”

That is how Swedish volunteer Jesper Söder described Sunday’s attack on Yavoriv, the military training base in western Ukraine pounded by Russian missiles that killed 35 people, according to Ukrainian authorities. Russia said the death toll was much higher…

He told The Associated Press by phone from Krakow, Poland, that he said he didn’t know how many foreign volunteers were being trained at the base but estimated they were in the hundreds. Unlike Söder, who fought alongside Kurdish fighters in Syria against Islamic State group militants, many of the volunteers at Yavoriv had no previous military training, he said.

Foreigners —some of whom have never handled a firearm yet but are ready to die— have arrived in Ukraine from other European countries, the United States and elsewhere. They are hoping to get equipped, instructed and made battle-ready.

But some arrive to discover that there are no weapons, protective gear or proper training in a multilingual force short on organization and breeding a sense of chaos.

Threats by Russia to target what it calls foreign “mercenaries,” as it said it did at the Yavoriv base, increase the level of risk.

“It’s chaotic right now. It’s disorganized, and you can get yourself in trouble very quickly if you’re not with a sensible switched-on group of people,” said Matthew Robinson, a British man from the northern England county of Yorkshire who had been living in southern Spain.

A recent arrival, Robinson is remaining cautious as he tries to sort things out. He said that there are “multiple legions, lots of false promises, lots of misinformation.” In addition, there is a “massive language barrier” and “alot of people here who haven’t fired weapons.”

Russia’s threats to target what it calls “mercenaries” compounds the dangers facing foreign fighters. Russia has claimed it killed 180 “mercenaries” in Sunday’s training base attack, and Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday that the Russian forces will show “no mercy for mercenaries wherever they are on the territory of Ukraine.”

The Russian military is tracking foreign fighters’ movements and will strike again, he said.

Söder's account of the attack on the training base suggested it was not an indiscriminate strike. Söder said the bombing of the base was different from anything he had experienced.

“They knew exactly what to hit. They knew exactly where our weapons storage was. They knew exactly where the administration building was.They hit the nail on the head with all their missiles,” he told the AP….

“We’re pretty upset that we’re in the middle of a combat zone with small arms fire on the road, bombs being dropped almost every day andwe haven’t been given our weapons yetjust because of bureaucracy and paperwork,” he said.

There was clear evidence that at least someUkrainian embassies were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of foreigners for Ukraine’s cause. In Paris, Ukrainian volunteers, including students, stood on the sidewalk to advise would-be fighters arriving from Bordeaux, Rouen and elsewhere in France to submit an electronic form.

But saving Ukraine has also become an attractive cause for the far right, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, providing a chance to fight.

Recruiting chats on the encrypted Telegram messaging app are run by the Azov Regiment, popular with neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and American neo-Nazis work to recruit for Azov, the respected SITE Intelligence Group says. Azov Regiment originated as a far-right paramilitary unit and is now a subset of the Ukrainian military, according to SITE

Still, British citizen Matthew Robinson stressed caution for foreigners eager to help the war effort on the ground.

“If any single person was thinking of coming here, organize yourself into groups and set yourself some limits” and seek information before arriving, Robinson said. “Because you can be railroaded into a legion and sent to the front line very quickly,” he said.

He added, “Even though you’ve got the best of intentions to help people,you could basically be cannon fodder.”

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/15/foreign-fighters-ukraine-await-weapons-chaos-of-war.html

>>15875099

Yeah I know, can you imagine going to a warzone with no training at all based on lies and emotions

16 Mar, 2022 14:06

West’s global political and economic dominance ends– Putin

The Russian president says that the “myth of the Western welfare state, of the so-called golden billion is crumbling.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has opined that the latest raft of unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and its allies over the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine, mark the end of an era. According to Putin, from now onthe West will be losing its “global dominance” both politically and economically.

Speaking on Wednesday, the Russian head of state proclaimed that the “myth of the Western welfare state, of the so-called golden billion is crumbling.” Moreover, it is the “whole planet that is having to pay the price for the West’s ambitions, and its attempts to retain its vanishing dominance at any cost,” Putin claimed.

The Russian president has predicted food shortages across the world as Western sanctions against Russia had adversely affected the entire global economy.

Touching on the decision by several Western powers to freeze Russia’s central bank assets, Putin claimed that this would only serve to irreparably undermine trust in those nations, andmake other countries think twice before placing their reserves in the care of those countries. According to the Russian president, nearly half of Moscow’s assets were “simply stolen” by the West.

Addressing people in the West, the Russian leader said that the massive sanctions imposed on Russia were already backfiring on the US and Europe themselves, with governments there trying hard to convince their citizens that Russia was to blame.

Putin warned ordinary people in the West that attempts to portray Moscow as the primary source of all their woes were lies, with a lot of those issues being the direct result of the Western governments’ “ambitions” and “political short-sightedness.”

The Western elites, according to Putin, have turned their countries into the “empire of lies,” yet Russia will keep on presenting the whole world with its own position, no matter what.

https://www.rt.com/russia/552079-putin-west-domination-ends/

16 Mar, 2022 13:57

Russia will respect private ownership unlike the West– Putin

No plans to nationalize foreign assets in the country, according to the Russian president

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday the country has no plans to nationalize foreign assets in response to seizures of Russian property abroad.

"Unlike Western countries, we will respect property rights," he added.

The arrests of the nation’s foreign assets, and those of Russian businesses, is a lesson for the country's entrepreneurs, according to Putin.

"There is nothing more reliable than investments at home," the president said.

“We must understand that a new package of sanctions and restrictions against us would have followed in any development of events.”

READ MORE: Russia reveals exact amount of reserves frozen by West

Last week, the Russian government proposed to nationalize the property of exiting foreign companies in response to the seizures of Russian-owned property and money abroad.

A number of mostly Western countries have sanctioned Russian businessmen and seized their assets. About half of the country’s gold and foreign exchange reserves, some $300 billion, have been frozen by central banks.

The US and its European allies have imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia after Moscow launched a military operation in Ukraine. Sanctions have forced hundreds of Western companies to halt operations and investments in the country.

https://www.rt.com/business/552077-russia-will-respect-private-ownership/

16 Mar, 2022 13:58

HomeWorld News

US considers sending ‘kamikaze drones’ to Ukraine – media

Explosive drones are said to be part of a ‘wishlist’ of American weapons sought by Kiev

The Biden administration is weighing whether to send explosives-laden ‘Switchblade’ drones to Ukraine, NBC News reported on Wednesday. The aircraft, which can loiter above the battlefield before propelling themselves toward an enemy, are just one weapons system Kiev has petitioned the US for.

The drones, manufactured by Virginia defense contractor AeroVironment, come in two varieties: One that targets personnel and another that targets vehicles. Equipped with cameras, guidance systems, and explosives, the robotic bombs can fly up to 50 miles to strike a target, or can circle above a battlefield before dive-bombing an enemy below.

These “kamikaze” dronesare significantly cheaper than larger and more sophisticated vehicles, and have a lower price tag than other single-use munitions that the US has supplied to Ukraine in recent weeks. A single Javelin launch system and missile costs $178,000, according to the Pentagon’s 2021 budget, while an anti-personnel Switchblade drone costs $6,000, NBC reported.

It is unclear how many of these drones the US has in its stockpile, how quickly they could be sent to Ukraine, and how much training Ukrainian soldiers would need to correctly operate them. So far, NBC reported,the UK is the only foreign country authorized to purchase the killer robots.

Congressional Republicans meanwhile wrote a letter to Biden and other administration officials on Tuesday, urging them to send to Kiev cash allocated for military aid “without delay,” and to include weapons from a “wish list” submitted by Zelensky.

Among the weapons named on the list are “armed drones, anti-ship missiles, ‘off-the-shelf’ electronic jamming equipment and surface-to-air missiles that can strike aircraft at higher altitudes,” NBC reported, citing unnamed sources in Washington. Republicans have also called on the administration to send Soviet-era warplanes recently provided to the US by Poland, although delivering these jets into Ukraine could be seen by Russia as an act of war, and Biden has thus far refused.

President Joe Biden is expected to discuss a new package of military aid for Ukraine on Wednesday, after an address to Congress by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During his address, Zelensky again called for the US to increase sanctions on Moscow and impose what he termed a “humanitarian no-fly zone” over Ukraine, imploring the American lawmakers: “is this too much to ask?” As an alternative, he asked for S-300 air defense systems or fighter jets.

While imposing this zone would counter Russia’s air superiority over the country, there are fears that it would also bring NATO troops into direct conflict with Russia, and in the words of Biden, would lead to a “third world war.”..

https://www.rt.com/news/552073-us-kamikaze-drones-ukraine/

Psaki thinks she can shame India

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1503840772621316103?s=20&t=Th-KrfBI2KFg4YHiw4Xufw